Each week MobileCrunchArcade compiles the biggest news from the world of mobile gaming.

I-Play announced this week that it has sealed the deal with Pandemic Studios to publish Mercenaries 2: World in Flames for mobile gamers. The soldiers of fortune return to stop a power-hungry tyrant from taking over Venezuela’s oil supply. This power play turns the South American country into a war zone that enterprising mercenaries can turn a profit on, especially with oil near record prices. But the mercs aren’t just interested in petrol dollars, this time it’s personal. I hope that commy bastard Hugo Chavez doesn’t read Mobile Crunch — his days are numbered.

If you’d like to hit your favorite politician you love to hate, Cellufun’s new game The Mobile Ring might just be the ticket. This game features US presidential candidates including Clinton, Obama and Giuliani, (If you don’t know who these people are this isn’t the game for you.) as boxers out to knock you down with higher taxes or continued war. High scores will be listed on Cellfun’s leader board and as certain politicians become more popular to fight, their boxing abilities will change. Players will also be able to vote on other public figures like TV pundits to be added to the ring of contenders. Did I mention that it is free? Now I have your attention. Go to wap.cellufun.com on your mobile browser and let’em have it.

Com2us released Tower Defense this week. Inspired by real-time strategy games, Tower Defense plays like the non-mobile version. A player can progress in Story Mode. Ten chapters need to be mastered by building towers and defeating enemies with different fortifications and 116 monsters. High scores are posted and players can qualify for prizes. Once all ten chapters are mastered, Custom Mode is unlocked. This allows players to edit their own maps and share them with friends. Tower Defense is available to AT&T mobile subscribers. I always build Ivory Towers. That’s where I live.

CMP’s Game Developers Conference Mobile 2008 (GDC Mobile 2008), the definitive industry event for mobile games has published its roster of featured speakers and highlighted sessions. The annual two-day, multi-track summit will take place Monday Feb. 18 and Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco during the Game Developers Conference® 2008. Featured speakers for this year’s event include established mobile entertainment veterans John Szeder, CEO of Mofactor, Mitch Lasky, Partner at Benchmark Capital, Rich Moran, Partner at Venrock, Chip Austin, Managing Principal of i-Hatch Ventures, David Collier, President of Pikkle KK, Tom Park, Director of Operations for Digital Chocolate and Rick Marazzani, General Manager of iQ212. The full lineup of speakers and sessions can be found at www.gdcmobile.com. This conference is for professionals only. I won’t be there. I’ve got too many games to play and so little time to play them …

That is this week’s MobileCrunch Arcade game roundup. Remember, exercise those thumbs, recharge the battery and never take your eyes off the screen.

MobileCrunch reported earlier today that a cellphone may have caused the death of a quarry worker in South Korea. According to new reports this afternoon, the man may have died of other causes.

The worker was found with a melted cellphone in his pocket yesterday but he also had a broken spine, broken ribs, and heart and lung injuries. According to the Yonhap news agency, the National Institute of Scientific Investigation thinks the injuries were too serious to have been caused by a battery exploding.

“It is difficult to conclude that the damage of internal organs was caused by the cell phone battery explosion,” Yonhap quoted an unnamed medical examiner as saying.

There has been no official cause of death issued. An autopsy and investigation may take up to15 days to conduct. The manufacturer of the mobile phone, LG Electronics, issued a statement saying that a battery explosion is almost impossible.

Peter Ha grabbed the first images of the Helio Mysto, the successor to the Drift. It’s essentially a CDMA version of the Samsung U600. No specs yet but the U600 has:

* 3.2 Megapixel Camera
* (Half Shutter, Auto Focus, Flash)
* 262144 Color TFT Screen (2.22”)
* 103.2×49.3×10.9 mm
* 60 MB + microSD
* Video Recording (MPEG4, H.263)
* Music Player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA)
* OMA DRM 2.0

* Bluetooth v2.0, USB 2.0 (H/S)
* FM Radio (RDS)
* TV-output (NTSC/PAL)
* Document Viewer
* Offline Mode
* Batter(690mA)
– talk time : up to 4.3 hrs
– standby time : up to 275 hrs

via CrunchGear

We talked about Cellfish this morning but did we supply you with a funny video to illustrate how it works? Didn’t think so.

Cellfish Media, a mobile content provider, released “Add-to-Phone” yesterday. This free application is embedded in websites and allows users to download content from the web to their phones with one click of the mouse. Content can be sent to mobile phones as a download or as a stream.

Add-to-Phone works on any carrier in 100 countries and can be used on any WAP-enabled phone. Nothing has to be preinstalled on the handset. A site visitor only has to enter a mobile phone number and a SMS message is sent with a link to the content or news feed, which is formatted and rendered on-the-fly to fit the user’s specific device.

A so called locker is provided by Add-to-Phone. This allows users to organize all the sites and content clicked on and is accessible both on the web and on mobile phones.

Website publishers have two options to integrate Add-to-Phone on their website:
1- “Widget mode”: copy and paste the button code within their HTML editor
2- “API mode”: use the API to create their own tools using the “add to phone” functionality. For example, Cellfish.com is the first to offer a player with a built-in “add to phone” option.

Additionally, Cellfish recently released the “Add to Phone” application for Facebook, which includes an album navigator that allows users to download or share their profile pictures and their friends’ albums onto cell phones.

“Cellfish.com relies on a state-of-the-art technology platform that allows us to bridge the gap between web and mobile”, states Cellfish Media CEO Fabrice Sergent, “by launching “add to phone” widgets and API, we are making it available to the larger web community. Our goal is to make the transfer from web to phone as simple as downloading a file to your computer.”

Cellfish Media
Cellfish Video Highlighting Add-to-Phone

South Korean police revealed today that a 33 year-old quarry worker was found dead with a mobile phone stuck to his chest. It is believed that the device may have caused the death. The man had burns on his chest, fractured ribs and internal bleeding, a doctor said.

“When he was admitted into the emergency room, the melted mobile phone was stuck to he left side of his shirt,” said Kim Hoon, professor at emergency department at Chungbuk National University Hospital, who examined the victim.

“I cannot think of any other cause of his death other than his mobile phone exploding,” Kim said.

Yonhap news agency reported that police are looking into the possibility that a faulty battery caused the death. It will take around 10 days for police to complete their investigation as to whether the cellphone is responsible for the fatality.

“He (the victim) was found lying next to an excavator while working at a stone quarry,” an official from the Cheongju Heungdeok police station, about 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Seoul, told Reuters.

Witness Kwon Young-sup told national broadcaster YTN: “He was lying on the ground and his mobile phone was still burning so I had to put the fire out.”

Note: The phone pictured above isn’t the suspected culprit.

Following European launches in Britain and Germany, the iPhone has landed in French markets. Orange, the mobile phone and Internet branch of France Telecom, has the exclusive rights to sell the Apple handset in the country that gave us Paris. Twelve outlets in France are offering the device for 749 euros today, before the full launch scheduled for tomorrow.

Over 50,000 people have already placed orders with Orange. Several French Internet sites are undercutting the price and Orange has threatened legal action based on its exclusive deal with Apple to sell the iPhone within France.

MobileCrunch reported last week that a lawsuit brought by Vodafone (Apple iPhone Unlocked in Europe) forced T-Mobile of Germany to sell an unlocked version of the iPhone. A locked version of the handset goes for 399 euros in Germany while an unlocked iPhone costs 999 euros. Orange sells the iPhone for 399 euros if the customer uses Orange as the carrier and charges an extra 350 euros for the unlocked version. As MobileCrunch predicted yesterday, this is well below the German price.

Price differences between countries selling the iPhone is bound to create competition between vendors in Europe and elsewhere. Someone in Germany can simply catch a train to France and buy an unlocked iPhone at a savings of 250 euros. When the iPhone goes on sale in Asia next year, even more markets will open up and the possibility for price differences increases. Apple’s goal is to sell ten million handsets by the end of next year, so I suppose they don’t care too much. But with unlocked iPhones being sold at cheaper and cheaper prices, it will be hard for Apple to keep Americans locked into AT&T. I can see smugglers legally selling unlocked iPhones in North America and elsewhere.

Orange

Japan’s Cyber University, the nation’s only university to offer all classes on the Internet, began offering a class today that is taught over mobile phones. Students will be able to learn about the mysteries of the pyramids while on the go. Cyber University, which opened in April with government approval to give bachelor’s degrees, has 1,850 students. Softbank owns 71 percent of the institute.

The lectures are shown as a streaming video on the handset, with text and images appearing on the screen. The professor’s voice can be heard in the background. In a demonstration Wednesday, an image on the pyramids popped up on the screen and changed to a text image as a voice played from the handset speakers. Ancient Egyptians would be mystified and willing to trade any pyramid for such wondrous technology.

For now, a course on pyramids will be the only one offered via cellphone. But unlike other classes offered by Cyber University, this class will be available to the public for free. If all goes well with the pyramid course, the university plans to add other cellphone offerings in the future.

I’m a bit leery about online credit from any university. There isn’t any real-time think on your feet exchange between students and professors. There are no set times where you have to be disciplined enough to show up at a certain place at a certain time. Instead, students can view lectures when it is at their leisure. Higher education should be about struggle and inconvenience. This weeds out the less dedicated and awards the rest with an achievement forged out of fire.

Cyber University Press Release

French iPhone fans can breathe easy: Orange will be selling the iPhone, unlocked, for considerably less than 999 euro but more than 500 euro.

The price will be about 500 euros, but “well below 1000 Euro”, said CEO Didier Lombard to the radio station Europe 1 In Deutschland bietet die Deutsche Telekom das Hype-Handy derzeit ohne Vertragsbindung für 999 Euro an. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom, the hype-Mobile currently without binding contract for 999 euros. In Verbindung mit einem Zweijahresvertrag kostet das iPhone in beiden Ländern 399 Euro. In connection with a two-year contract will cost the iPhone in the two countries 399 euros. Die France-Telecom-Mobilfunktochter Orange startet den Verkauf des iPhone in der Nacht zum Donnerstag. The France Telecom mobile subsidiary Orange started selling the iPhone in the night of Thursday.

Unlocked iFones from Orange cheaper than T-mo [CG]

CrunchGear reports:

By the end of 2008, you’ll be able to BYO device to Verizon’s high speed wireless network, according to a press release issued today.

Verizon “will provide customers the option to use, on its nationwide wireless network, wireless devices, software and applications not offered by the company.” This could be seen as a reaction to upcoming Android phones but probably won’t be accessible to the average hobbyist, as devices will need to be “tested and approved in a $20 million state-of-the-art testing lab” before being activated on the network.

Apparently you can even bring home-brew CDMA hardware onto the network for a small certification fee. This is a very gutsy move and I’m not sure what it means, in general. Considering GSM carriers have had this portability and ease-of-use for years, I wonder what economic force is causing them to backtrack on this.

via CG

A report by the EU statistical office Eurostat reported today that almost one in five EU households have gone fully wireless, cutting off landline subscriptions that dominated the telecommunications market for over one hundred years. In 2005, out of every 100 habitants, 95 had a mobile phone. In 1996 only 8 out of 100 could go mobile.

New comers to the European Union tend to have more wireless only households. A country like the Czech Republic boasts that 42% of households have switched over to mobile phones, while only 11% in Germany can make that same claim. It is believed the poor landline infrastructure in ex-communist countries has fueled the switch to wireless handsets in central and eastern Europe.

In Finland, home of mobile giant Nokia, 47% of households have done away with landlines to embrace cellphones. But in Sweden, where rival Ericsson is headquartered, 0% of households rely only on mobile phones.

For every 100 people, Luxembourg leads the EU with 158 mobile subscription, or 1.58 subscriptions per person. Lithuania and Italy are close seconds with 127 and 122, respectively.

The report also has stats on the most talkative mobile users. Cypriots were the chattiest EU citizens, talking an average of 6 minutes a day per subscriber. The figure was lowest in Poland and Germany, with 1.3 and 1.6 minutes of talk time, respectively.

Eurostat

Research firm Gartner announced today that this year’s fourth quarter will see an increase in cellphone sales worldwide. In the third quarter vendors combined to sell over 289 million handsets, with strong demand in Asia and Africa lifting sales 15% from a year ago. These numbers are predicted to continue, with holiday sales in Europe and North America helping to boost purchases.

“I think it’s going to be a good Christmas, showing growth of 10 to 15 percent from last year,” Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said.

Cellphone providers foresee market growth of over 10% this quarter over last year’s numbers. Gartner said annual sales are set to reach 1.134 billion phones. These sales numbers easily make mobile phones the largest consumer electronics sector in the world.

Western Europe should see good holiday sales. New models from Nokia and Sony Ericsson are expected to be hot items this Christmas, while growth in emerging markets like Africa and China is set to continue.

“India and China are not showing any signs of slowdown,” Milanesi said.

Nokia is the company that is cashing in the most on growth in emerging markets. The company’s market share rose to 38% in the third quarter from 35% in the same quarter last year. Nokia has a strong lead in markets like China and India.

India is seeing tremendous growth, with 8 million new customers signing up for mobile phones each month. Cellphone makers are targeting first time buyers in India with low-priced handsets to gain market share in this rapidly developing country of a billion people.

For you number crunchers, here are some statistics provided by Gartner. Samsung overtook Motorola with 14.5% of the market, compared to 13.1 for the U.S. company. Sony Ericsson and LG Electronics also increased their market shares to 8.8% and 7.1 percent, respectively.

Nokia has benefited from the sales of ultra-cheap handsets, which has boosted its profit margins. Nokia’s profit margin on cellphones rose to 22% in the quarter, while its best performing rivals, Samsung and Sony Ericsson boosted their profits just over 12%.

Gartner

AT&T (Ma Bell) and LG Electronics MobileComm (LG Mobile Phones) announced the availability of the new Shine by LG today. The Shine is a sliding form-factor device that features a silver exterior and comes with video, music and camera features. The phone is sold exclusively through AT&T and comes with a 2.2-inch mirror LCD screen.

The phone is packed with some of AT&T’s best features, including AT&T Video Share, Mobile Banking, and AT&T Mobile Music. This phone isn’t just about style and glamour; it provides state-of-the-art mobile device computing and wireless services.

“This is the kind of device that people will stop and ask if they can hold it,” said Carlton Hill, vice president of Product Development for AT&T’s wireless unit. “The Shine by LG will be appealing to anyone who believes that a mobile phone should work well and look great.”

“Metal is back and taking on a whole new look with this season’s must-have mobile phone, the Shine by LG,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of Product Strategy and Marketing at LG Mobile Phones. “Consumers will be captivated by the Shine’s brushed-metal body and mirror LCD, and they will be excited to find that the phone is more than just a pretty face.”

I’ve never been big on looks. The biggest fashion statement I make is changing my underwear once a week. But the Shine does have a 2.0-megapixel camera with video record and Bluetooth 2.0 capability for music and voice. The handset is available through AT&T retail location or online for $149.00 after a two-year contract-activation agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate. Perhaps this silver bell is just what you need to help ring in a new year.

AT&T Wireless
LG Mobile Phones

Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone manufacturer, is being sued by Qualcomm, a U.S. chipmaker, over two technology patents held by Qualcomm. The lawsuit is scheduled to begin today in the British High Court.

Qualcomm is asking the court for an injunction that will stop Nokia from selling products in Britain that use the patents in dispute. Nokia is denying that any of its products infringe on Qualcomm patents. It is unclear what Nokia products will be affected if the British High Court grants Qualcomm its request for an injunction.

Qualcomm has filed similar suits against Nokia in the Untied States, Germany, France, Italy, and China. None of these cases has reached a verdict or settlement.

“Nokia is confident the facts and the evidence presented at trial will clearly and definitively demonstrate that Qualcomm’s alleged GSM patents are invalid and not infringed,” Nokia spokeswoman Anne Eckert said.

The two companies failed to renew a key technology licensing pact that expired on April 9 of this year. Ever since, the legal complaints and answers from the two have been papering courtrooms around the world. It is estimated that Nokia pays Qualcomm around $500 million annually for its patents.

It looks as though Nokia is willing to play legal hardball in its attempts to lower the amount of money it pays Qualcomm for the right to use the patented technology. If it wins the suits, Nokia won’t have to pay anything for them. This threat may be enough of an enticement to get Qualcomm to negotiate on a new agreement that could save Nokia millions in patent use fees. If Qualcomm wins the suits, Nokia might be out some money for legal fees but then it is back to business as usual. The courts shouldn’t award Qualcomm more for their patents than Nokia has paid in the past.

Qualcomm
Nokia

Gemalto, a digital security company, has partnered with Valimo, a mobile signature company, to create a secure mobile signature application for the mass market. Valimo’s Mobile Authentication Client (VMAC) will be put on Gemalto’s SIM (subscriber identity module) to provide customers with a safe way to sign documents electronically.

“We have seen a significant increase in interest from the telecommunications community for mobile signatures. Gemalto is the most reliable and experienced player in the field of mobile security and is at the forefront in providing the market with inventive and strong solutions for mobile authentication and signing” says Tapio Vailahti, Chief Executive Officer at Valimo. “We are proud that Gemalto embraced Valimo’s mobile
signature approach with the VMAC embedded in its SIM cards. With Gemalto
committed to the Valimo Mobile Authentication Client, I see good signs
ahead.”

A mobile signature is the digital equivalent of a handwritten signature on a document like a contract. The mobile phone acts as a pen for e-services that may require handwritten authentication and as a password provider. Things like online banking, internet check out and entry to corporate intranets from outside the office can be done over the phone without additional devices, software or passwords.

“Implementing the Valimo VMAC is a natural progressive step from Gemalto’s roll out of mobile signature schemes in Europe,” says Jean Francois Gros, Director Partner Solutions at Gemalto. “The Gemalto SIM cards will provide a state-of-the-art option for mobile operators who intend to roll out mobile signature services to their subscriber base. We consider that the whole SIM community should benefit from a best-of-breed
combination with respect to SIM cards and mobile signature applications”.

Valimo
Gemalto

Deutsche Telekom’s mobile unit T-Mobile announced today that it would sell the Apple iPhone without a contract. This was done in order to comply with a court injunction awarded to rival Vodafone by a German court. (See yesterdays post.) In Europe, when a mobile phone is sold that has a lengthy service contract attached to it, the hand set is sold at a discounted price.

T-Mobile will sell an unlocked version of the iPhone for 999 euros, or $1,477. The unlocked phone will be able to use any service provider the consumer wishes. The same phone will sell for 399 euros ($590) if the customer signs a two-year contract with T-Mobile to provide carrier service.

Apple has been trying to protect the iPhone from being unlocked ever since it was released earlier this year in the Untied States. The media has followed attempts by people to unlock the phone to free owners from a lengthy contract with AT&T. Now that an unlocked version is being sold in Europe to comply with a court order, the future of the iPhone’s exclusive carrier contract is in doubt in the United States.

There is no court injunction to keep enterprising Germans from buying unlocked iPhones and selling them to Americans. Unlocked versions of the phone have already been sold on Internet sites. Now a flood of sales may come out of Europe. If buyers are willing to pay extra to keep from signing with AT&T, now there is little to stop them.

It will be interesting to see if T-Mobile’s unsubsidized price of 999 euros will be challenged or not. This is over twice the asking price for the subsidized price of 399 euros. It is conceivable that a rival company will argue that the unlocked price is set too high, and is an attempt to get around the court injunction.

All this is taking place just before Apple is scheduled to open the Asian market to the iPhone. Laws are different there but Apple can’t be happy with the German court. Now that the iPhone lock has been picked by legal means, it will be harder to keep it locked in other markets. It will be interesting to see if the exclusivity of the iPhone remains, or if the whole thing unravels from European legal rumblings.

Yesterday the British telecom group Vodafone sued Deutsche Telekom’s mobile unit T-Mobile for the exclusive right to sell Apple’s iPhone in Germany. A German court granted Vodafone its request for a preliminary injunction designed to stop the sales of the iPhone linked to an exclusive 24 month T-Mobile contract. The injunction doesn’t keep T-Mobile from selling the handset but may force Apple to allow other service providers in Europe to carry the iPhone.

The injunction centers on the unsubsidized nature of the handset price and the two year contract that Germans must sign for an iPhone. In Europe, mobile phone operators typically subsidize the cost of handsets for customers who sign long-term contracts for mobile phones that are locked to one network. In some European countries this is regulated by law.

“It is not permissible to link the use of the iPhone exclusively to T-Mobile’s network,” a Debitel spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Debitel is a German mobile phone operator that has filed a complaint with Germany’s telecoms regulator about T-Mobile’s iPhone deal.

“The legal basis for the injunction is currently being examined,” a T-Mobile spokesman said. “We have an exclusive device in our portfolio, but if you look at the market, that’s normal. The main thing is we will sell the iPhone. There is no stop to selling the iPhone.”

Legal challenges to the exclusive nature of the iPhone have been filed in the United States but to date nothing has come from these actions. Europe may be a different story. Consumer protection and anti-trust laws are very different in Europe and vary between countries. One of the staples of the iPhone is the exclusive right to carry the handset on a network. Apple works out lucrative deals to share revenue with carriers that win the bid to carry the iPhone.

One way Apple may be able to overcome the German injunction is to offer an unlocked iPhone in Europe that can access any service provider. Apple can claim that the current 399 euro price is a subsidized price and offer unlocked iPhones for a high price that few consumers would pay. I’m sure Apple has some clever lawyers working on ways to keep the iPhone locked in Europe so don’t stay up nights worrying about Apple’s European profits.

AT&T is in negotiations with Ingenio to buy the online advertising company. Ingenio’s technology traces the effectiveness of advertisements by tracking phone calls made to businesses based on phone numbers used in ads. The ads tracked can be online, on mobile phone Web sites, or print. Ingenio’s technology provisions the phone numbers and tallies the calls. Rates paid by advertisers are based on the volume of phone calls generated by the ads.

AT&T plans to meld Ingenio into its Yellow Pages Web site. This will allow AT&T to take advantage of the trend toward performance-based advertising. With Ingenio’s service, advertisers don’t need their own Web sites to use the service. Advertisements appear across Ingenio’s network and point viewers to phone numbers to call, not necessarily to Web pages.

Currently companies like AOL use Ingenio for pay-per-call ads, and MSN uses it for ads sent to mobile phones. AT&T expects the deal to buy Ingenio will be finalized in January of next year.

This move by AT&T will help the company compete with Google and Yahoo! in the online advertising arena. Advertisers are looking for better ways to target their audience with ads and for ways to track the success of advertising campaigns. Ingenio will help AT&T in this endeavor.

AT&T
Ingenio

Verizon Wireless announced the release of two new mobile phones today. It seems that the holiday season brings out the best in companies. The Voyager and Venus will be on sale this week. Both hand sets will be sold in all Verizon Wireless Communications Stores. The Venus goes on sale today and the Voyager will make the display case on November 21.

“These phones offer customers some of the most exciting technology available today,” said Mike Lanman, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. “The combination of touch and tactile keypads that are features on both devices give customers a winning combination that is rare in the market today. We are excited about these phones and expect them to be in high demand during the holidays.”

Both handsets include a 2.0 megapixel camera, VZ Navigator capability, a microSD memory slot that can support up to 8 GB of additional memory, and dual screen displays. The Voyager has a large external touch-screen while the Venus has dual external screens, with the bottom screen using touch technology. Both units also offer access to V CAST Video. This service provides news, sports and entertainment clips along with 3D games. V CAST Music can be used by the phones to access over 2.4 million songs that can be downloaded to the handsets’ memory.

“The Venus and the Voyager by LG are two groundbreaking handsets with the advanced features and style that LG Mobile Phones is known for,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy and marketing for LG Electronics MobileComm USA, Inc. “These distinctive devices give consumers the choice they want in their mobile phone experience.”

The Venus is available for $199.99 after $50 rebate and two-year customer agreement; the Voyager will be available for $299.99 after $50 rebate and two- year customer agreement. Both phones can be purchased online or in a Verizon store. If you are afraid the Voyager is going to be out of stock by the time you get to the story Wednesday, it can be pre-ordered at the link below.

Verizon Wireless

If you have been hoping that a mobile phone is available for sale before the holidays that supports Napster’s wireless digital music service, your wish has been granted. Service provider AT&T and handset maker Samsung have collaborated to create the first mobile phone that supports Napster’s mobile music archive, and it goes on sale this Friday, November 23, just in time for the holiday gift buying rush. This mobile phone, which is exclusive to AT&T, will allow customers to search a music catalog and preview song samples before buying the music.

Napster has a catalog of over five million songs and this partnership will help AT&T compete with Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel in the music download arena. AT&T currently allows Napster subscribers to transfer music form their personal computers to their cell phone via a cable or storage card. This new phone allows music to flow in the other direction. Customers who download a song to their cell phone will get an e-mail allowing them to put a second copy of the music on their personal computer for no extra charge. Songs will cost $1.99 each, or $7.49 for five per month.

AT&T
Napster